The expedition was projected to attack and rout, and if possible capture, a large rebel force under General Pryor, known to be in strong position at the Deserted House, a well known landmark to all Suffolk soldiers, about ten miles on the road to Carsville. Our forces were all under command of Gen. Corcoran, who had a portion of his own brigade, with Spear's Eleventh Pennsylvania Cavalry, Follett's, and the Seventh Massachusetts Batteries, the Indiana Thirteenth, New York One Hundred and Thirtieth, and Massachusetts Sixth, and other infantry.

The most of our casualties were at about the time of daybreak; and, in the midst of the sinking of the heart I experienced over the wounds and death of dear friends, I could not help noticing that the pink of sunrise was just as fair as on a marriage morn, and that the robins and blue birds played their mellow flutes as though no such scenes were transpiring.

"How strikingly the course of Nature tells,
By its light heed of human suffering,
That it was fashioned for a happier world."

We had a brief but melancholy chapter of disasters to record, the most and the worst of which related to the excellent Groton company (B). Lieut. E. D. Sawtelle of Groton, aged twenty-eight, was killed by a shell-wound on the chest and thigh. How well I remember him all along the march, within a few feet of me, the gayest of the gay, cheering his men with lively and pleasant words, and moving to the battle as though to festive scenes. Lieut. S. G. Blood was slightly scratched in the face by the same shell. George W. Blodgett, of Westford, aged eighteen, was instantly killed by a shell-wound in the head. A. Withington, Townsend, aged nineteen, killed. Augustus Reed of Westford, company B, was so wounded in the right arm as to render amputation necessary. He died Feb. 27, of secondary hemorrhage. Francis I. Howard, of Westford, company B, lost his right leg, and died Feb. 3.

Besides these, the rest were but slightly wounded. Lieut. I. N. Marshall, company C, slight injury from piece of shell near the knee; Lieut. W. F. Wood, company K, contusion of the head by a piece of shell; W. H. Smith, company K; J. T. Smart, company C; W. Whitcomb, company B; C. W. Hildreth, company B. Capt. Bartlett was slightly lamed in the foot by a wheel, and Adjutant Allen somewhat injured by the falling of his horse across him, when he, together with Col. Follansbee, had a fearfully narrow escape. Both were sitting together, by the side of their horses, when a shell passed through both animals, killing them both, and throwing them across the adjutant. The colonel's noble horse "Jim" was one of the finest animals in the service. The shell that killed these horses, tore the back out of the blouse of Wm. Spalding, the colonel's clerk, without inflicting a scratch on him. And others of us had close but safe escapes.

Source: "Historical Sketch of the Old Sixth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers during its Three Campaigns" by John H. Hanson, Chaplain of the 6^th Regiment, published in 1866. This book is online at Archive.org.